Home Interviews Taking Risks Sometimes can be Good – Kehinde Muibi, Destinycrest CEO Shares His journey into Entrepreneurship

Taking Risks Sometimes can be Good – Kehinde Muibi, Destinycrest CEO Shares His journey into Entrepreneurship

by Radarr Africa

Muibi Kehinde Hammed is the Managing Director/CEO of Destiny Crest Engineering Services Limited. His extensive passion for uncompromised quality in the construction of housing and infrastructural projects has been awarded to his success in starting Destiny Crest, one of the fastest-growing building and construction companies in Nigeria.

Kehinde shares insights on his experiences and journey into entrepreneurship and how he started his company with zero funds and grew his company to international standard, now dominating the building and construction industry.

How would you describe your company in 3 words?

I will describe Destiny Crest Building Engineering Company as peculiar, flourishing and credible. In less than 2 years of operation, we’ve gotten more jobs than we imagined when we first began. We’ve also done pretty well in retaining a large percentage of our clients because of our quality service delivery. We never settle for less, all our materials are quality, and all our constructions are guaranteed to last up to 50 years, without natural disasters.

What inspires the growth of your company?

Well, I will say we hire the best engineers. We don’t have a huge number of technical staff but more than 75% of the 15 engineers we have are certified and registered. Our staff inspires and aids our growth,  we are certain we will stand out and be among the best not just in Nigeria, but in Africa, in the near future.

Give us a brief detail about yourself and early career life.

I was born on September 22, 1992. I have an OND in mathematics and statistics at Osun state college of technology Esaoke, Bsc In Business administration from IRGIB AFRICA UNIVERSITY and also Project management science at ISCG university in Benin republic

I started my career as a banker in First Bank, Nigeria, after which I worked at Skye Bank. From the operations department, I learned how to relate with customers and handle almost every sector in a company. My experience at the bank also taught me how the restructuring and organizational processes of companies work. 

I later moved to a real estate company, Christal Homes as a partner and worked there as Executive Director and Chief Operations Officer for about 2 years. I was in charge of allocation, property acquisitions from families and also the state government.

I was so steadfast with my job that within a short period of 2 years, I had delivered 6 estates. While working at Christal Homes I kept on strategizing on starting my own company, a dream I had nurtured since my secondary school days. Looking back, I think I can relate my successes at these companies to self-discipline, sheer determination to succeed, these traits also gave me the courage to leap out to start off Destiny Crest.

What is your company’s structure in terms of personal, culture, competitive advantage, marketing strategy and branding?

Destinycrest operates a well-structured model in terms of our organisational culture and strategies. For one, we only recruit the best of engineers, each possessing at least 15 years’ experience, this has given us some sort of edge in our industry and also qualified us for several jobs in both the private and public sectors within and outside Lagos.

As regards strategies, we tend to tilt towards strategic partnerships. We understand that no individual can be perfect in every area of his/her business so we Identify the key players the area of need or industry in question and work out a partnership strategy that will be beneficial to both parties. For example, we currently have partnership deals with other construction companies that give us contracts, this has increased our experience and also allowed us to penetrate new markets.

We always guarantee our clients two things; quality and timely delivery, we never joke with either of both. Every job we deliver is also unique and exclusive to each client, you can barely find designs similar to ours anywhere and we never repeat designs. 

Let me also add that we are not in competition with anybody, we are our competitors, we strive continuously to improve and grow on a daily basis because our brand name is very important to us. By 2020 we intend investing deeply in our brand name as the aim is to be known all over the world, especially in Africa.

Where do you envision your company in the next 5 years?

In the next five years, we want to be among the biggest construction companies well known all over the world, especially in Africa. We look to have over 50 branches across the continent. Currently, we have in the southwest; Lagos, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, and Ogun state.  We have currently moved to the south-south region – Delta, and Anambra. So the goal is by 2020 to cover all 36 states, we want to have our name registered under both the state and federal government as one of the top choice contractors. We want to be one of the best construction companies in Africa as we started well and we are doing well and we hope to do better.

Tell us how you have leveraged technology in your business.

Technology has made our work a lot easier because we do lots of calculations. With technology one can calculate a cost estimate to develop a 50 acres of land in less than 3 hours, and this will it will include everything about the estate, i.e, buildings, fencing, drainage, road, e.t.c. Unlike before when tasks like this will involve multiple personnel and over a week of work. Right now, no matter how big a project is, cost estimates for construction can be gotten within 24 hours. 

Daunting tasks like taking measurements with tapes have now been replaced by smartphones, we can get angles, dimensions and measurements in meters or feet using a simple phone app.

What’s your biggest challenge so far in running your company and how did you manage it?

The biggest challenge would be Trust. Our first set of customers after making an agreement on payment, we trusted them and started their work, they later absconded without completing their payment as agreed. Till today we have clients that are still owing sums running into several million. 

To avoid this we initiated systems and processes that allowed matches work by batch payments. For example, if we are paid 40% of the fee, we deliver 40% of the work and continue as more funds are received. That way we are able to maintain balance, pay salaries and pay our taxes.

How have you been able to sustain your business financially?

Destiny crest was completely bootstrapped. We have never collected money from any investor, we’ve been able to sustain the company with the contracts we get and deliver. We pay our workers weekly and our staff monthly and we just recently got our head office, a project that cost us over 20 million which was supposed to be our 2020 goal. 

We have 2 vehicles for site inspection and we are working on acquiring 3 more so we can have accessibility to move around and ensure all things are working perfectly on site.

In terms of running the cost of your business are there decisions you would have made differently?

Not really, because I always take my time to think through before making any critical business decision. Sometimes It takes 3 – 4 days to decide on some matters, but in cases like this, I rely on the intelligent and smart people around me, my wife, my MD and other colleagues for advice. The only major challenge we’ve experienced in a while was during the last rainy season, we made the mistake of commencing a particular job in a swampy location just before the rainy season and we lost almost 5 million naira as a result of the heavy downpour. That taught us how best to handle site work during the rainy season.

What’s the biggest risk you have ever taken?

The biggest risk I have ever taken was starting 3 jobs in different locations at the same time, we were constructing sugar land estate then, the locations were Epe, Ibeju Lekki and Osoroko. and these projects were miles apart from each other. Right now, we have learned to go to the site and inspect it before anything else.

Also, there was a time when I had to pay salaries with the last money we had in the company’s account, for 1 month nothing was added to it, but the following month we got a project of about 25 million. Taking risks sometimes is good but you have to be careful and properly weigh your options.

What sets you apart from others?

As I mentioned earlier, Quality job and prompt service delivery, we never stall on our work, we promise 7 weeks and deliver in 4 weeks added to the fact that we don’t repeat our designs, I personally sketch all our designs myself. Our clients are always amazed by our work. We are unique in our own way.

What is your definition of success?

Success is achieving your vision and goals to the fullest.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

My advice to them would be not to give up, you’ll definitely face challenges but those challenges would be you unlocking the door to your next level.

I started this company with zero naira, I wrote to companies and friends but no one was willing to help out, the first four months was hell, but I wasn’t discouraged. So my advice to entrepreneurs out there is not to be discouraged but keep moving no matter the challenges. Nothing is permanent in business, there is no business that doesn’t have downtime.

Entrepreneurs should also be ready to face challenges and take up opportunities, the moment you do you’ll achieve greatness.

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9 comments

Ezeri Christopher Vincent January 10, 2020 - 10:37 am

Everytin said is nothing but the truth. I am a living witness about this testimony. Spending few years with him ad neighbour in same house and later worked 2geda in Christal Homes. I can say Kentucky (Kehinde Muibi) as we fondly cal him is a wonderful person and I see him going places.

Bigger Destiny Crest I pray..

Long Live Nigeria
Long Live Destiny Crest
Long Live Muibi Family..

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Felix Alozie January 10, 2020 - 10:37 am

Muibi Kehinde Hammed is a special being that I have known for over 4years and still counting. He been a risk taker isn’t a surprise to me, as he resigned from a his paying bank job (Skye Bank) to start up his business.
Kenny i call him is a starter, risk taker and a determined individual who doesn’t take negative for an answer until success is been achieved. I am always inspired by you Kenny and thank you for setting the pace for others to follow.
Destiny Crest Engineering Services Limited long live and more businesses to come.

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Omogboye saheed January 10, 2020 - 11:06 am

Well said amd detailed, you have conquered where others had failed, working with you in the real estate sector has a lot of positive impacts in my finances and am also a CEO today because of people like you.

Thank you and God bless you sir.

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Ezekwe Ngozi Marcia January 10, 2020 - 11:10 am

Mr Kenny is a very wonderful man, very kind hearted, passionate and dedicated to his work and family. I have no doubts that he will go places! This is just the beginning.

Well done Boss ????????????????????????

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Edwin Andrew January 10, 2020 - 11:42 am

This man is a great man of discipline,man of time and his a man of my mirror, a man that I trust and want to follow his step.

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Afuye femi January 10, 2020 - 1:57 pm

Kenny is a man of integrity and vision, thats all .

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Adewole Victor Adenekan January 10, 2020 - 9:01 pm

Wow… Kenny, you always amazed me because I witnessed all from beginning, may the Lord keep and sustain you at every phase of life… Congratulations bro

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Samuel Tijani January 12, 2020 - 3:25 pm

Mr Muibi Kehinde is a hardworking man. Well said sir. I wish you God’s blessings.

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Samuel Tijani January 12, 2020 - 4:19 pm

Mr Muibi Kehinde is a hardworking man. I wish you greater achievements sir.

Reply

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